Sounds of the Forest

A frost warning for tonight had me in the garden as the sun sunk below the horizon. With my arse waving in the air, I was desperately picking tomatoes when I heard a loud snort behind me. Peering through the tomato plant leaves I see a large doe standing there. Slowly I stand upright and turn around and stare at her. She stares at me. I stare back at her. She stares at me. I realize that this can literally go one way or the other way. She snorts loudly again...and then turns and bounds off the other way. Well, I think to myself, that serves me right for planting my garden on the edge of a forest.
An hour later with the sun long gone it was time for me to go pick up my daughter from basketball practise. Our house is in the forest and to reach the truck I need to walk along an unlit path through the forest. Normally this does not bother me as I enjoy the sounds of the forest. I stepped out on porch and deeply inhaled the autumn scents while gazing up at the stars in the night sky. I started off on the dark path and when I was about halfway along I suddenly recalled the deer. Thinking to myself and without saying anything aloud, I wondered what if that deer is waiting for me in the forest alongside this trail? Suddenly Siri on my cell phone spoke up and proclaimed loudly into the surrounding silence of the forest  "Everything will be ok".

I kid you not....

I also kid you not that the talking cell phone scared me WAY more than the snorting deer...